Terrace hits low on staff pay scale

The city of Terrace is still spending less money on its staff compared to Kitimat and Prince Rupert.

In 2011, the City of Terrace spent $6.7 million on wages, benefits and expenses for staff while Prince Rupert spent $12.4 and Kitimat spent $9.1 million.

Of those amounts, Terrace paid 17 municipal employees a salary of more that $75,000, totalling $1.7 million in salary, benefits and expenses. Prince Rupert paid 45 staff more than $75,000 in salary, totalling $4.3 million including expenses and benefits. Kitimat also paid 45 municipal employee salaries that topped $75,000, totalling $4.4 million with expenses and benefits included.

Of those top-paid spots in 2011, the City of Terrace had seven staff members on its payroll topping the six-figure mark compared to Prince Rupert at 12 and Kitimat at 17.

In each city, the position with the highest paying salary is the chief administrative officer (CAO), called the municipal manager in Kitimat.

But a job shuffle in both Kitimat and Terrace this year means only Prince Rupert’s city boss Gordon Howie hit higher than the six-digit salary mark in one place, being paid $154,008 in salary and benefits and $25,508 in expenses.

Ron Poole, who served as CAO in Terrace just more than half of last year was paid $90,208 for those months in salary and benefits with $4,205 in expenses.

In July 2011, Poole started as Kitimat’s new city manager, being paid $93,430 in salary and benefits for the remainder of the year, as well as collecting another $8,160 for expenses there.

Terrace’s current CAO, Heather Avison, replaced Ron Poole for the remainder of 2011 while also filling other roles for the year.

She collected $109,492 in salary and benefits for all of 2011, and filed $4,324 in expenses.

But Avison rang in at third from the top-paid spot in Terrace, with firefighter Fred Euverman earning $110,419 in wages and benefits and David Jephson inching in above Avison at $109,793.

In Kitimat, fire captain Mark Zielinski earned the most at $135,720.

And for staff paid less than $75,000 yearly, Terrace paid out the most at $5.1 million, then Kitimat at $4.7 million and Prince Rupert at $4.3 million.

And while the City of Terrace may be spending less on its staff, elected officials are in the middle pay range when comparing the three municipalities.

While a municipal election in November of 2011 meant not all elected officials collected the same, the pay for Terrace city councillors was $11,790 compared to Prince Rupert at $12,339 and Kitimat at $7,957.